The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-364619 filed on Nov. 30, 2000, including the specification, drawings and abstract, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to route guide apparatus and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to route guidance in which a user""s fashion of moving is taken into consideration.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a conventionally known vehicle navigation system that searches for a route from a present position to a destination input by a driver of the vehicle by using a Dijkstra""s algorithm or the like, and displays a found route on a display device so as to guide the driver to the destination. More specifically, the system displays map data on the display screen, and detects the present position of the vehicle and displays the present position on the map data in a superimposed manner, and indicates a found route on the map data by an arrow or outputs voice guidance for the route so as to guide the driver to the destination. If a facility or the like exists along a guide route, the navigation system appropriately displays information regarding the facility for convenience of the driver.
Along with widespread use of mobile appliances, including cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc., systems which supply a user of such a mobile appliance with information regarding a route to a destination have been proposed. For example, technology developed for users of PHS(copyright) (personal handyphone system) detects an approximate present position of a PHS phone, and finds a route from the present position to a destination, and transmits route data to the PHS phone.
However, routes found by ordinary vehicular route finding algorithms are not necessarily appropriate for users who desire to move on foot to their destinations instead of using vehicles. That is, when on foot, a user can choose a pedestrian path or a narrow road that people usually do not use when moving by vehicle. Despite this fact, the conventional vehicular route finding algorithms do not present such narrow roads or pedestrian paths as guide routes. Another problem is that the conventional technology cannot guide a user in such a reliable manner that even when in a relatively complicated road situation, the user will not lose one""s way.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus and a method capable of finding appropriate routes not only for users moving by vehicle but also for users moving on foot, and of effectively supplying a user moving to a destination with advertisement information.
In order to achieve the aforementioned and/or other objects, one aspect of the invention provides a route guide apparatus for finding a route to a destination and supplying the route to a user terminal. The apparatus stores information regarding facilities which are landmarks, searches for a route that reaches the destination and that passes near at least one of the facilities which are landmarks, and supplies the route to a user terminal.
Furthermore, in order to achieve the aforementioned and/or other objects, another aspect of the invention provides a route guidance method of a route guide apparatus for finding a route to a destination and supplying the route to a user terminal, the method including: receiving a user setting of the destination; searching for a route that reaches the destination and that passes near at least one of the facilities which are landmarks for the user, and supplying the route to the user.
According to the route guide apparatus and method, a route that passes near a facility (including a route that passes through the facility) which is a landmark can be found, and can be supplied to the user terminal. Therefore, the user can reach the destination without fail, based on the landmark. The xe2x80x9cfacility which is a landmarkxe2x80x9d in the invention does not need to stand out among the surrounding buildings and the like, but may also be a facility that is relatively easy for a user moving along a road to visually recognize.
The route guidance method of the invention may further include storing advertisement information, wherein the method searches for a route that passes near at least one facility which is a landmark and whose advertisement information is to be supplied to the user. Furthermore, in accordance with the invention, a route guidance method may include: receiving a setting of the destination from the user; searching for a route that reaches the destination and that passes near at least one facility which is a landmark for the user and whose advertisement information is to be supplied to the user; and supplying the route to the user.
Therefore, it becomes possible to supply facility-related advertisement information to a user besides presenting a route that is easy for the user to understand.